This time of the year often tends to be a time of reflection for me. Here is what I wrote when it was 22 years ago. It was in April that I first went to Taiwan. I wrote a bit about that here. I wrote the 2nd part here.

So this year as I reflect I will write Part 3.

I came home and went to work for a consulting firm. It was supposed to be a five year contract but 10 months later the contract ended. During those 10 months, I had bought a house, began attending a new church, and had adjusted to life back in the US.

Now I am out of a job. I need a job. I start looking and find out that the company where I used to work was hiring in the Marketing Department. I applied and was interviewed. I remember one of the questions in the interview was about how long I wanted to work there. I think they were trying to determine if I was just looking for a job until I could find something else or was I looking to get back into the industry. I wanted to get back into the industry. That was the end of 1993/beginning of 1994 that I began working there.

About a year later I was not challenged in the job and getting a bit bored. At that time the way things worked internally to move departments was that it went through the Vice Presidents. I wasn’t ready to say I wanted to move departments because I had told the VP that I was looking to stay there and so now a year later I want to stay but I want to go back to Asia.

I remember one evening driving home and feeling frustrated with my job. I pulled into the garage and prayed that God would work all of this out. I was beginning to have a desire to go back to Asia but felt that it was not something I could pursue at the time. I prayed and left it in God’s hands.

One morning at work a few weeks later, I received a phone call from the General Manager of the Asia office. He asked me if I would be interested in a position there. He had already gone to my VP and had permission to ask me. God had answered my prayer.

So in June 1995 I put my house on the market, packed my belongs to ship and some for storage. I moved to Asia again for the 3rd time. This time I had an apartment at the edge of town and a car, a little white Ford Fiesta. I learned to drive in the city, to use the car lift to get to the parking garage, began working my new job. I got involved with a small church there. I spent time with co-workers both local and ex-pat. I made my first trip to China and traveled to Thailand quite a bit as we had an office there.

I began Chinese lessons mainly because I wanted it for living. I do remember when I knew enough to know what the staff in the office were talking about. One day I heard the girls that worked for me talking about the laoban which means boss and so I asked in English which boss are you talking about. They realised that they had to be careful what they said.

I lived there for 18 months. I wan’t planning to move back to the US but was given a promotion and an opportunity to work as a product manager. I decided it was time to move back to the States. November 1996 I moved back to the US.

Looking back I see how God used that in my life. He answered the desire of my heart. He gave me learning experiences. I think each time I moved, I was learning more about the people and culture.